6 2 years later.

"Hah!"

"Urk!"

A horizontal sword swing was coming quickly, so while keeping my sword fueled with mana I braced. Meeting his sword with mine caused a loud "clack" sound to ring out as we were both using wooden swords, had I not had mana running through my hands and the sword I'm sure I would have at least stinging hands right now.

Pushing off the swing, I send a wind mana fused kick and while I couldn't quite reach with my foot, the force from the added wind mana pushed him back giving me some space. Resetting my stance with my katana like wooden sword held vigilantly in front of me with both hands I fuel my sword with fire mana and prepare an over head slash.

My opponent, Kaspian Bladeheart, sensing the mana fuels his own sword with wind mana and prepares to meet it. Even at 4 the height difference is to substantial so my over head slash only causes him to hold his sword out front. However the results speak for themselves, when our swords met fire and wind swirled around each other and blew up dust in a circle around us.

The excess fire and wind died down leaving just us still locked by our swords before Kaspian nods and disengages. I follow suit and immediately sheathe my sword at my hip.

"That should do it for today, your mana control has become noticeably better as of late, I imagine you'll be breaking into yellow soon. Your swordsmanship still needs refining, but I'm sad and happy to say that you could currently beat any swordsman that's not an expert in sword skills alone.

At this pace I won't have anything less to teach you in another 2 years. From there you'll have to find your own style and way of the sword to progress passed just an expert."

He says before tossing his wooden sword to the side and dusting off his clothes.

"While I say that, just having better sword skills doesn't always determine the victor. Experience, and also in your case size and weight. You're definitely powerful, but you're still too small and weak compared to other swordsmen."

I breathe out a sigh, it's not like I didn't expect that with me only being 4 currently. However I had hoped with my continuous mana core development it would compensate for my lack of size, but as it is right now I would lose to most if not all people of my core level strictly because of more experience and size.

"You're right. While I can't control my size besides with waiting, I can however gain experience. By becoming an adventurer."

"No." Kaspian quickly responds.

"Wha-? Why not? It's the best way for me to gain more experience!" I childishly argue back.

"It's obvious why. Well maybe not to you but to any other logical human being it is, 4 is just too young to be going and risking your life. Now I respect the lengths and determination you put into the training, though I still don't know why, but as your instructor and definitely as your guild leader I will not allow you to become an adventurer."

I stood there jaw wide open as I stared at him, he seemed to scheming of a man to not allow someone like me to become an adventurer. But as I thought about it, maybe that's exactly why. While he knows I'm qualified accidents can still happen, so he wants to make sure I can truly handle myself before I join.

"How about if I defeat you in a duel? Would you allow me to then?" I ask challengingly while slanting my eyes slightly into a small glare. Not in any kind of anger towards him, but to show my resolve and the seriousness behind the question.

He eyes me up and down, before closing his eyes and thinking. I honestly think I'll have to hit at least yellow core to be able to defeat him because I think that will even the playing field. My reason for this is that I believe he's a yellow core mage himself, however I don't know that for certain because it was never stated in the books that I can remember.

"Alright kid, but you have to wait 1 year. In that year, both you and I will train separately, no longer will I be instructing you. If you can defeat me in exactly 1 year I'll allow you to join the adventurers guild. Although if you lose… you can't join until you're 8 years old."

Truthfully I wanted to complain, as waiting until

I was 8 would really be a pain. But I had to shake my head at myself. Why was I counting myself out soon? Just moments ago I was saying if I broke into yellow I could beat him, and it definitely won't take me a year to break into yellow. Since I first met him I had put him as a starting baseline in power even though he's an ant compared to the future opponents I'll face.

Haha, the scythes pushed white core Arthur to his limits and I'm worried about a guy that only troubled a light red Arthur because he didn't want to show all his powers. Which put things into perspective once more of how important experience and battle knowledge is to fights.

"You're on, Mister Kaspian. I'll defeat you in a year, but please prepare yourself because I wouldn't want to win easily." I say as an intensity seemed to burn within me, and it resonated with my fire mana making it seem like the pupils of my eyes were burning a blue flame.

This triggered a memory in me, the professor in Xyrus that tried to bully the students, he used blue flames. Hotter than regular flames, I found my next weapon to use. I think to myself while a wry grin appears on my face. I want something hotter than blue flames though, if some reject like that guy can get blue then surely I could surpass that, but what comes after blue in the heat index?

It seems to follow the ROYGBIV thing, so indigo and violet should technically be hotter right? That's just the visible spectrum though, is there a flame that's hotter that would be invisible to the normal human eye? Agh! Too much thinking, I still haven't gotten a blue flame yet and I'm already thinking of hotter flames.

Looking back at Kaspian I see that he eyeing me strangely before coughing and turning away.

"I look forward to our match. Train hard ki- er Jaron."

My eyes widened as I realized he actually called me by my first name. All this time he's called me "kid" or "brat", I guess this is his small way of acknowledging me and my resolve to grow stronger.

The rest of the day I was hyper focused on my current task, and my family seemed to notice. They didn't ask me as many questions about my training, and kept the conversation to a minimum. Surprisingly it was me that sparked the coming conversation.

"I'm going to become an adventurer." I said casually.

"Absolutely no-!" Tabitha began, but I quickly cut her off.

"Uh let me rephrase! Not now or tomorrow, actually it won't be until a year from now. You see I made a deal with Mr. Kaspian that if I beat him in a duel that he would let me become an adventurer." I say with a faint smile.

"What about our thoughts on the matter? We get no say in if our son goes out to risk his life?" Tabitha shouts out once, and surprisingly to me she had signs of tears pooling in her eyes. I was taken aback by the sight, of course I had grown closer to the family over the years but I didn't know if I had this strong of feelings towards them. Definitely not to the extent Tabitha is showing now.

I look down at my plate to see it clear of any food, and then I looked between each of the Helstea's. Each one had a face of sadness, and I could feel confusion at the sight. Had I truly been this blind to their familiarity to me? Or rather their love? Just thinking that sent a guilty shiver down my back.

Of course I knew they cared for me, but caring and having genuine love for something is different. In my last life I didn't have much experience with this sort of thing. The foster parents cared or rather "cared" because it's how they got their checks. Each home was the same, go to school, come home and maybe they cooked dinner maybe you have to find something yourself.

Conversations weren't had, feelings weren't shared. We were a family, but strangers at the same time, and I guess I accidentally fell into that same mindset once I moved out of the orphanage. From one house to the next, it was the norm that I had gotten used to. Now however I had 3 people just in this house that truly cared if I came home or not. And I had been taking advantage of them because they were rich, not realizing that I currently had what I had always longed for in the past.

My eyes welled up with tears and each of them had shocked faces as they watched me.

"I-I'm sorry." I said as I drop my head, and the tears fall down my cheeks. Sounds of chairs scraping against the wooden floor turns to rapid footsteps as I'm enveloped in a warm hug by Tabitha from behind. A hand is placed on placed on top of my long straight black hair that now reaches just last my shoulders. And a fretful Lilia stands close not knowing whether to approach all the way or not.

Wiping my tears, I feel something in my chest that I've never really felt before. A feeling of fullness that feels good but hurts at the same time, an aching, a longing. I reached a hand out to Lilia and pulled her into the hug, Tabitha readjust and Vincent joins in as well. There we were all locked in a hug as a family. My family. I could feel the ache lessen and leave only the pleasant sensation as I basked in the love.

While tears were no longer spilt, hearts were definitely heavy. I still needed to speak though, although I would cherish my family more in the future I still needed to grow stronger or that future would be threatened. Steeling my resolve and praying for my voice to not choke up I spoke once more.

"I still need to become an adventurer. It's not like you won't see, and I know you guys know I'm not weak. I'll be very careful and I'll even join a party picked by Mr. Kaspian if it would make you guys feel more at ease, but this is something I've been dreaming about ever since I awakened my mana core. Actually even before because of stories I had read or heard. Please."

Though I made it through the majority with no chokes, the please was soft almost to the point you couldn't hear it. Silence permeated the room as everyone still remained in the family hug. While I feel Vincent wanted to say something long ago he felt this was more of a subject to be answered by Tabitha.

"Alright, but I also have some stipulations." She said evenly while pulling out of the hug so she could look me in the eyes. I nod my head in acceptance.

"You have to complete all your studies with satisfactory marks. You must come back and attend the academy by at least 10 not a year longer. Regular visits in between missions, and lastly please don't get hurt." While I wasn't too happy about having to attend the academy at 10 years old, everything else I could live with. Also I'm sure it could change too when Arthur and his family gets here. Maybe I'll even get to go on Arthur's adventurer journey with him.

Nodding I quickly speak up.

"I accept." Another brief but strong hug was shared before everyone returned to their seats. We finished off our teas and had a pleasant conversation until bedtime.

Once in bed I sat down to do my focused mana purifying. Not 30 minutes later I felt the same satisfying "crack" in my mana core. Closing my eyes and focusing on my core I could see the dark yellow shining through the cracks of the my orange core. Seconds ticked by and..

*crack*

A smile formed on my face as I saw my dark yellow mana core floating in the black space. Only one thought ran through my brain.

"You really shouldn't have given me a year Mister Kaspian." Or maybe you knew I would surpass you in a year already. Tsk, truly a scheming guy.

Laying back on my bed I bring my sword up to my chest gripped in my hand. I still only feel comfortable while holding this sword, I feel as if a part of me is missing whenever I let go of it. But maybe that's just the loss of mana rotation from not having my focus. Oh well.

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Author's Note

I actually did extensive searching on what is the hottest flame and what color it takes and got an annoying amount of different things and no concrete info. Plus it's not like I can search hottest flame color if we could use magic. However what I did learn is that blue is technically the hottest of what we can see. As if their were violet stars the wavelengths would be too small for us to see or something from that distance.

Even all things I read seemed to say blue was hotter that white? Either way none of that matters as like the chapter said MC is going off the basis that purple is the hottest visible flame.

Also I'm kind of in a weird spot. At the same time I want to just skip straight into adventuring and MC helping Arthur fight the Vritra. However I also don't want to rush it and do more of the day by day sort of chapters, but that's a LONG time with MC only being 4 and the story not really starting until 12. But I don't want to just skip all the in between stuff, as I feel some people will feel im rushing the story.

With all that said I'm most likely planning another time skip for next chapter, straight into the fight with Kaspian. However I haven't decided that 100% yet. I also feel like if you're still reading this FF you either like the slice of life style chapters or you're just holding on until the action. If you're the latter I apologize that not much action has happened yet, but it will soon. If you're the former then please keep enjoying and I hope the story has been worth the read so far.

Alright complaining over. I'm really excited to get into the adventuring part as that's when I feel more of Jaron's strength will form. I'm normally not much of planner, I usually just think as I write. But I've been really thinking hard about the adventuring arc, and the developments of Jaron's abilities.

Thanks for reading.

-SocioPhobia